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President Truman on freedom, peace, prosperity and international cooperation

“There is not going to be any short-cut to preserving our own freedom or securing the peace fo the world through international cooperation of free and peaceful nations…
…I am confident that the American people have never been more strongly united in their determination to preserve our own freedom and to aid friendly nations…
…Our actions in the days ahead must reflect that unity and I am confident that all of you will do your utmost to see to it that a united American people overcome the obstacles and dangers which lie between us and our common goal of a just and lasting peace.”
TRUMAN, Harry S. Typed Letter Signed. Washington, DC, November 20, 1950. A substantial letter with excellent content from President Truman addressed to Dwight R.G. Palmer, an executive of the Democratic National Committee. In this remarkable letter President Truman makes a forceful and earnest request for support in building a secure and lasting peace in the early post-war period. This letter reflects what historians regard as President Truman’s greatest achievement, i.e., his success in building a secure and stable peace after the Second World War.

Rare 1861 third edition of Darwin's Origin of Species, a scholar's copy

The important 1861 third edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was the first to include Darwin’s account of the work of his predecessors.
“The great majority of naturalists believe that species are immutable productions, and have been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, believe that species undergo modification, and that the existing forms of life have descended by true generation from pre-existing forms.”
In the original publisher’s blindstamped green cloth gilt (with Edmonds & Remnants ticket); half-title, one folding plate, advertisement leaf at the end. Cloth a bit rubbed, some loss at lower spine, hinges holding despite some wear; generally a very presentable copy with an interesting provenance.
Provenance: Professor Martin Brasier (1947-2014), a celebrated palaeobiologist and author of Darwin’s Lost World: The Hidden History of Animal Life (published in 2009 as part of the Charles Darwin centenary celebrations). This copy with an inscription by Brasier: “used in Darwin’s study at Down House, Kent”. Also James Earl Moreton, F.R.C.S. (1831-1914), bookplate; Thomas W. Earl Moreton, gift inscription to G.B. Leach

Rare 1861 third edition of Darwin's Origin of Species, a scholar's copy

The important 1861 third edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was the first to include Darwin’s account of the work of his predecessors.
“The great majority of naturalists believe that species are immutable productions, and have been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, believe that species undergo modification, and that the existing forms of life have descended by true generation from pre-existing forms.”
In the original publisher’s blindstamped green cloth gilt (with Edmonds & Remnants ticket); half-title, one folding plate, advertisement leaf at the end. Cloth a bit rubbed, some loss at lower spine, hinges holding despite some wear; generally a very presentable copy with an interesting provenance.
Provenance: Professor Martin Brasier (1947-2014), a celebrated palaeobiologist and author of Darwin’s Lost World: The Hidden History of Animal Life (published in 2009 as part of the Charles Darwin centenary celebrations). This copy with an inscription by Brasier: “used in Darwin’s study at Down House, Kent”. Also James Earl Moreton, F.R.C.S. (1831-1914), bookplate; Thomas W. Earl Moreton, gift inscription to G.B. Leach

Signed by Annie Leibovitz

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY ANNIE LEIBOVITZ.
“I hate the word ‘celebrity.’ I’ve always been more interested in what people do than who they are, and I hope that my photographs reflect that. I have the opportunity to work with people who are the best actors, and writers, and athletes, and dancers–a broad spectrum. I feel like I’m photographing people who matter, in one way or another. I’m photographing my time.”–Annie Leibovitz, in an interview with Literal Magazine
Folio, original photo-pictorial boards, original glassine. Minor tears at extremities of rear glassine wrapper. A lovely copy.

THIRD EDITION of William of Auvergne’s meditation on the subject of prayer. This work was first published in 1491 and again in 1492.
Octavo. 152 printed leaves. Beautifully rebound in (early) printed leaf over boards with vellum manuscript leaves on paste-downs. Printers device on title and verso of final leaf; rubricated in red and blue. Small hole to margin of first few leaves; occasional light dampstaining to margins; a superb and quite desirable copy.

President Truman on freedom, peace, prosperity and international cooperation

“There is not going to be any short-cut to preserving our own freedom or securing the peace fo the world through international cooperation of free and peaceful nations…
…I am confident that the American people have never been more strongly united in their determination to preserve our own freedom and to aid friendly nations…
…Our actions in the days ahead must reflect that unity and I am confident that all of you will do your utmost to see to it that a united American people overcome the obstacles and dangers which lie between us and our common goal of a just and lasting peace.”
TRUMAN, Harry S. Typed Letter Signed. Washington, DC, November 20, 1950. A substantial letter with excellent content from President Truman addressed to Dwight R.G. Palmer, an executive of the Democratic National Committee. In this remarkable letter President Truman makes a forceful and earnest request for support in building a secure and lasting peace in the early post-war period. This letter reflects what historians regard as President Truman’s greatest achievement, i.e., his success in building a secure and stable peace after the Second World War.

"It’s the gas station, that’s the important thing"

“The photography by itself doesn’t mean anything to me: it’s the gas station, that’s the important thing”
An exceptional private collection of the artist books of Ed Ruscha. First editions, many signed.

"A girl who had everything...until she lost her life"

First edition superbly bound in modern morocco. She was young, stylish and beautiful. A girl who had everything…until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Yet in this exotic setting nothing was ever quite what it seemed. A fine copy.

First edition of Mario Puzo's masterpiece

First edition of Puzo’s masterpiece with all first issue points. Octavo. Original black quarter cloth, original dust jacket. Book fine, dust jacket uncommonly bright with only trivial wear to the extremities; small chip at the back top corner of the dust jacket. An exceptional copy.

“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for...”

First edition of perhaps Hemingway’s finest novel, in the first issue dust jacket. Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. Book about fine, dust jacket uncommonly bright with very minor shallow chipping to spine, few small creases to extremities. Overall an excellent copy.

First edition of Ayn Rand's magnum opus

First edition of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus and certainly one of the most influential books published in the 20th century. A superior copy with the original dust jacket, in the original green cloth. Near fine with text remarkably clean and text block solid (rarely the case with this stout octavo), small spot to front board; dust jacket bright and clean with few small creases and tiny chips; spine lightly toned, overall an excellent copy of a book seldom seen in such nice condition. All first issue points present.

First edition, signed by David Mamet

FIRST EDITION, hardcover issue, SIGNED BY MAMET on dedication page.
Winner of the 1976 Obie Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play of 1977; made into a 1996 film starring Dustin Hoffman.
Octavo, original yellow cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-morocco box. A FINE COPY.

First edition, with a lengthy inscription by Sherwood Anderson

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY SHERWOOD ANDERSON.
“Dear David… One incident about the writing of this book will amuse you. The murder of Jim Gibson was written at the back of a little boat-laying place in Mobile Alabama while some sailors at a nearby table discussed the divinity of Christ. Sherwood Anderson.”
Octavo, original blue cloth. Dust jacket lacking. Spine sunned, light wear at spine head. A handsome copy with a superb inscription.

editio princeps of the Agamemnon

FIRST COMPLETE EDITION OF AESCHYLUS. With the editio princeps of the Agamemnon.
“An excellent and beautiful edition… It is a much more valuable impression than either of its precursors.. what enhances the value of the edition is, that the Agamemnon is published in it, for the first time, complete.” -Dibdin, An introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin Classics
Quarto. Early full tree-calf skillfully rebacked, spine in six compartments, red leather label. Gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Text generallly clean throughout; repaired tear to the lower portion of title page. A handsome copy of an important and distinguished edition.

FIRST UK EDITION, translated from the French by Beckett.
“Voted the most significant English language play of the 20th century in a British Royal National Theatre poll of 800 playwrights, actors, directors and journalists… Beckett’s naked play about two tramps waiting for Godot has tapped into our 20th-century public consciousness. It seems to express our deepest fears and our deepest knowledge of ourselves and our predicament” (Norman Berlin).
“The first production of Beckett’s own English translation, directed by Peter Hall, was staged at the Arts Theatre Club in London in August 1955. Kenneth Tynan’s and Harold Hobson’s reviews made it into an intellectual hit which has since been regarded as having transformed the British stage” (Dictionary of National Biography).
Preceded by the first edition (1952, in French) and the first American edition (1954).
Octavo, original mustard cloth, original dust jacket. Book near-fine with slight lean; dust jacket with light edgewear, toning to top of rear panel.

First edition, inscribed by John Fante

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED on the front endpaper. “For Miss Fowler, who taught me all about radio, –– with all good luck / John Fante”
Octavo, original cloth, dust jacket. An excellent copy in a superb dust jacket with only minor toning to rear panel.

LIMITED EDITION, 1/1000 COPIES. Folio. Two volumes. Original paper wrappers printed in red and black. Original glassine. Complete with 14 plates by Alastair. An outstanding set with light wear to glassine wrappers.

Signed by Walt Whitman

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY WHITMAN.
“As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free”, before becoming the final addition to the final edition of Leaves of Grass, was published independently by Whitman in 1872, twenty years before the poet’s death. The title poem was written as a commencement for Dartmouth College as one of the few pieces Whitman recited publicly.
With large Whitman signature across title page. Octavo, original dark green cloth; custom half-morocco box. Minor discoloration to pastedowns. a little fraying to spine ends and corners.

“The tone of the ‘beat’ world, as Burroughs first perceived it, chimed with the world of Jack Black.” –James Campbell, This is the Beat Generation
FIRST EDITION of Black’s influential autobiography; with the extremely rare original dust jacket. This book is often hailed as the first “Beat ” book.
The memoir of a notorious thief, vagabond, and ‘honorable’ outlaw, You Can’t Win was a bestseller upon its publication in 1926. It would become a favorite book of William S. Burroughs (whose “Junkie” is modeled after it) and with its depiction of a free, loose, nomadic lifestyle, become one of the most influential works for the Beat movement.
Burroughs claimed that, in his representation of the dying days of the Wild West, Jack Black “has recorded a chapter of specifically American life that is now gone forever,” a way of life that Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others would try to adapt and re-create for their own generation.
Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket; custom box. Early owner signature on front endpaper. Book fine, dust jacket shows wear at spine, with large chip at tail. Scarce in dust jacket.

FIRST EDITION of Ellison’s first book, winner of the 1953 National Book Award for Fiction. A fine copy.
Ellison’s “importance as a writer was established by his first novel, Invisible Man, published in April 1952. Immediately acclaimed by critics, it was recognized not merely as an excellent novel by a black author, but as a great literary achievement. In The Negro Novel in America, Robert Bone called Invisible Man ‘quite possibly the best American novel since World War II.’ Also well received by general readers, the novel spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list” (American National Biography).
Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-morocco box. A fine copy.

Signed by Ken Kesey

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY KEN KESEY.
Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. First issue dust jacket (with Kerouac’s blurb on front flap). Owner signature at front pastedown. A nearly fine copy in very lightly toned jacket with trivial wear at spine ends and small waterstain at inside front flap. An excellent copy signed by Kesey on the front free endpaper.

First Edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson

FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE of the most famous and most beloved biography in the English language. One of only 1750 copies of the first edition printed (both first and second states combined).
“Anyone interested in biography soon becomes interested in Boswell’s Life of Johnson. It stands next to other biographies as Shakespeare stands beside other playwrights: towering above them all. For more than two centuries it has been continually in print, and in that time it has won innumerable admirers. No other biography has given so much pleasure; no other biographer has created such a vivid central character. It has become a truism that, as a result of Boswell’s extraordinary book, Samuel Johnson is better known to us than any other man in history” (Sisman, Boswell’s Presumptuous Task, xv).
First state with “gve” on page 135 of vol. I. Quarto. Two volumes. Contemporary calf, skillfully rebacked. Gilt compartments, double-labels. A wide margined copy in a handsome binding. With frontispiece (after Sir Joshua Reynolds) and the two engraved plates in vol. II. Courtney & Smith, pp. 172-73. Pottle 79. Grolier English Hundred 65. Rothschild 463.

FIRST EDITION of Kerouac's first novel SIGNED AND INSCRIBED by Kerouac

FIRST EDITION of Kerouac’s first novel SIGNED AND INSCRIBED by Kerouac to Judge Vincent Lupiano who performed the wedding service for Kerouac’s marriage to Joan: “A thousand thanks for tying my marital knot–Best luck in all the world to you & yours–Sincerely, Jack Kerouac and his new missus, Joan”. With letter of provenance from Lupiano’s son.
“For too many readers, and critics as well, Kerouac begins and ends with On the Road, yet he had already been writing and publishing for years when he produced the seminal Beat text… Readers who are interested in understanding Kerouac’s themes and methods, as well as his place in American literature, owe it to themselves to start with Kerouac’s first book” (Michael J. Dittman, Jack Kerouac: A Biography).
With “Compliments of the Author” card laid-in. Inscribed on the front free endpaper. Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket; custom box. Book very good, dust jacket with mild edgewear and some foxing to rear panel.ker

First edition of Robert Frost's first volume of poetry, A FINE COPY

FIRST EDITION, in the rare first-issue binding (“binding A”), of Robert Frost’s first book of poetry.
“By 1911 Frost was fighting against discouragement. Poetry had always been considered a young person’s game, but Frost, who was nearly 40 years old, had not published a single book of poems and had seen just a handful appear in magazines. In 1911 ownership of the Derry farm passed to Frost. A momentous decision was made: to sell the farm and use the proceeds to make a radical new start in London, where publishers were perceived to be more receptive to new talent. Accordingly, in August 1912 the Frost family sailed across the Atlantic to England. Frost carried with him sheaves of verses he had written but not gotten into print. English publishers in London did indeed prove more receptive to innovative verse, and, through his own vigorous efforts and those of the expatriate American poet Ezra Pound, Frost within a year had published A Boy’s Will (1913). From this first book, such poems as ‘Storm Fear,’ ‘Mowing,’ and ‘The Tuft of Flowers’ have remained standard anthology pieces” (Britannica).
Octavo, original bronzed brown cloth with upper cover title in gilt. A fine copy. RARE.

From the library of Norman Mailer

FIRST EDITION, MAILER’S OWN COPY. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED: “from my library / Norman Mailer” on half-title. With letter of provenance from Mailer’s nephew Peter Alson.
Written when Mailer was just twenty-five, The Naked and the Dead is one of the classic novels of World War II. Both a critical and commercial success (it remained at the top of The New York Times best-seller list for eleven weeks), it launched Mailer’s career and remains one of the most influential American novels of the century.
Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-morocco box. Book fine, dust jacket a little toned at flaps, some rubbing to extremities.

Scarce Review Copy of Kerouac's On the Road in Fine Condition

FIRST EDITION, of the defining work of Beat literature. Scarce review copy, with stiff review card laid-in.
“Kerouac’s literary art bore no resemblance to the undisciplined ‘beatnik’ writing of the late 1950s. His extraordinary attention to detail, astonishing memory, and encyclopedic grasp of European and American literature, popular culture, and world religions enabled him to create densely textured narratives that, when read aloud as they were meant to be, achieved an incantatory dimension rarely experienced in modern literature” (American National Biography). On the Road was Kerouac’s first work—and in fact the first work in American literature—that exemplified this “literary art”.
While most critics dismissed the novel as “self-indulgent, irresponsible, or dangerous”, “it created an instant literary sensation” (ibid.). At the time of its publication, it was one of the few books that perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the post-war years and echoed it back to the rest of the country, amplified and embellished, to create something eternally contemporary. “Now more than ever, it seems, reading Paradise’s tale brings out the questing young wanderer in many a reader, no matter one’s age, gender, nationality, or predilection for all things Beat” (Holiday).
Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-morocco box. With advance review slip laid-in. Book fine, dust jacket in outstanding condition with a few flecks of rubbing; also a small patch of dampstaining visible on verso only. A superb copy with the extremely rare review card.

FIRST EDITIONS. “To this task Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose” (PMM, 222).
Six volumes. Quarto. Contemporary tan calf rebacked with old red and green lettering-pieces laid down, gilt in compartments. Engraved portrait frontispiece in Vol. I, 2 folding maps in Vol. II, 1 folding map in Vol. III, without half-titles in Vols. II and III, others present. Frontispiece slightly foxed as usual, some offsetting, a few gatherings slightly foxed, a very good set.
With portrait frontispiece of Gibbon (in vol. I), 1 folding map of Europe adjacent to Constantinople (in vol. II) 1 folding map of the Eastern Roman Empire and 1 folding map of the Western Roman Empire (in vol. III). The portrait of Gibbon “engraved by Joseph Hall from an original picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds” published by Strahan and Cadell in 1780 and issued with the second volume, has been moved by the binder to the appropriate place, at the beginning of vol. I. That volume is in the second of two variant states, without the cancels X4 and a4.

FIRST EDITION of the defining work of the Beat generation. ADVANCE COPY, with extremely rare additional printed white dust jacket announcing the publication over regular dust jacket:
“This is a copy of the first edition of ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac. It will be published in September 1957 by The Viking Press and is certain to cause violently conflicting reactions among readers and critics. We believe that readers will find truth in the book; to some this truth may be beautiful, to others it may be ugly, but no one can fail to be impressed by what this books says and the way it says it.”
Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket together with review copy white dust jacket; custom cloth box. Book fine, extremely vibrant original dust jacket with light edgewear including closed tear at top right corner of front panel. Exceedingly rare advance jacket with toning to spine, some soiling, and matching closed tear at top right corner.

FIRST COMBINED EDITION. “Its distinctive octosyllabic couplets and MOCK-HEROIC style gave rise to the term ‘Hudibrastics’. It was immensely popular in its time for its satire (partly inspired by Cervantes and Rabelais) against Puratinism and the tyranny of the Commonwealth.” – The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
Octavo. Perfunctory calf binding, title remargined at inner hinge, cropped somewhat close at top of text block, scattered early and elegant marginal annotations in ink. A sound copy.

“When you read this book, from page one you feel a threat following you, some animistic urging that keeps you going by the way McCarthy manipulates your demonic love of the sounds of speech. It’s seductive, the way shots of tequila offer the promise of danger, the way Shakespeare convinces you that even though Macbeth is up on the stage and you’re in the audience you’re thinking and feeling along with him, his bravado, his self-convincing, his descent, his death…” –Harold Augenbraum
FIRST EDITION of the first novel of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy.
“Winner of the 1992 National Book Award and the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, Cormac McCarthy’s sixth novel, All The Pretty Horses, simultaneously recapitulates and transcends many of the themes, situations, structures, and characters of his earlier work…” (Arnold and Luce, Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy).
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy.

FIRST EDITION, INITIALED BY WARHOL ON HALF-TITLE. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket (slight blistering to jacket).

SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, one of 800 copies signed by Woolf.
“Virginia Woolf’s novel about Vita Sackville-West represented a turn from the kind of experimentation in life in which she could not wholly let herself go to the kind of venture in art where she could be wholeheartedly involved” (Ralph Freedman, Virginia Woolf: Revaluation and Continuity, A Collection of Essays). Orlando came as a great departure from Woolf’s other novels—less carefully written, and “in some ways foolish—a novelist’s holiday rather than a novel” (ibid.). It was, indeed, less of a novel, than “the longest and most charming love letter in literature” (Nigel Nicholson).
Precedes the first UK edition. Krikpatrick A11a. Signed on verso of half-title. Octavo, original elaborately gilt-decorated cloth; custom cloth box. Fading to cloth (about an inch in from the edges on the front board, less on rear) and fraying to edges. A very good copy.

DEDICATION COPY OF SNYDER’S FIRST BOOK, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY SNYDER: “For Jim Baxtor / from Gary”. Baxtor is one of 12 dedicatees.
Octavo, original wrappers, Japanese string tied binding. One of only 500 copies. Fine

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Original cloth, original dust jacket. First issue dust jacket with “1/66” code on the front flap; “Publishers of the American College Dictionary and the Modern Library” on rear flap. A superb copy.

"A necessary part of any Civil War library"

“The grandfather of pictorial histories, this mammoth work is a necessary part of any Civil War library. The work contains 3,389 images that constitute an important source on the war’s appearance—its battlefields, common soldiers, officers, forts, diseases, camp scenes, army movements, and materiel.” Eicher, The Civil War in Books 771.
“The greatest single collection of Brady illustrations” (Allan Nevins). The Mathew Brady photographs represent the first instance of a comprehensive photo-documentation of a war.
New York: The Review of Reviews, 1911. Quarto, original blue cloth gilt. Ten volumes. An exceptional set, gilt uncommonly bright. Only occasional trivial wear to bindings. Very rare in this condition.

“Avedon gravitates to those moments in which the oscillation between pretense and revelation is most intense. The subject of any of his photographs is likely to show in part isolation or grotesquerie, courage to the point of madness, isolation-and-defiance or sly amusement, desolation and wit, pride and sterility, pride and triumph. Victories, defeats mingle in the same moment sometimes or on adjoining pages…” –Harold Brodkey (from the Introductory Essay).
FIRST EDITION. A spectacular production illustrated with Avedon’s photographs of Lauren Bacall, Joan Baez, Bridget Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Anjelica Houston, Janis Joplin, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Yves Saint Laurent, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Vreeland and many more. A near fine copy with the original acetate jacket in very good condition with wear and chip at the top of the spine. An excellent copy signed and inscribed by Avedon.

FIRST EDITION of the tenth book in the James Bond series.
Octavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Book near-fine, leaning very slightly; with elegant bookplate on front pastedown. Dust jacket unusually bright with very light toning; very trivial traces of wear. A lovely copy.

FIRST EDITION in English, beautifully illustrated with 104 plates (64 in full color), and TWO ORIGINAL COLOR LITHOGRAPHS done expressly for this edition.
“All the time I was working, I felt my father and my mother were looking over my shoulder, and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews of yesterday and a thousand years ago.” –Chagall, on the creation of The Jerusalem Windows
Chagall’s Jerusalem Windows illustrates and chronicles the creation of the famous twelve stained glass windows, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, designed by Chagall for the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Synagogue in Jerusalem.
Text and Notes by Jean Leymarie. Original red cloth, original pictorial dust jacket. Without the rarely seen publisher’s slipcase. Book fine, dust jacket near-fine with only a little edgewear.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING of what is considered to be Dick’s finest work and winner of the 1963 Hugo Award. A beautiful copy in the original dust jacket.First printing with D36 of page 239. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, 37.
Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Book with slight bump at heel of spine and a hint of edgewear to dust jacket. A beautiful, bright copy.

Signed by Arthur Rackham

RACKHAM, ARTHUR; SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES.
The Springtide of Life. Poems of Childhood by Algernon Charles Swinburne.
SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, number 354 of only 765 copies signed by illustrator Arthur Rackham. Beautifully illustrated collection of Swinburne’s children’s poems, with nine mounted colored plates and 52 black and white drawings.
One reason why Swinburne never brought out such a collection was his failure to find an artist who could interpret to his satisfaction the simplicity and freshness of his verses. We are fortunate in having secured, in Mr. Arthur Rackham, one whose delicate and romantic fancy is in sensitive harmony with Swinburne’s, and who understands, no less than he did, ho ‘Heaven lies about us in our infancy.'” –Edmund Gosse, Preface
Quarto, original half vellum over parchment boards with gilt designs. Some soiling to endpapers, binding with only the slightest soiling; an exceptionally clean copy.

ARTHUR MIZENER'S REVIEW COPY, WITH ANNOTATIONS BY MIZENER.

ARTHUR MIZENER’S REVIEW COPY OF PHILIP ROTH’S MASTERFUL FIRST BOOK. WITH ANNOTATIONS BY MIZENER.
“The real novelty of Roth’s view of American Jewish Life, circa 1959, was its absence of any sense of tragedy or oppression… Hurling themselves into the American Dream, the Patimkins live a continuous daily round of sports… and of eating–gargantuan meals, served by Carlota, the maid, that smother conversation in active digestion and extra helpings.” –Claudia Roth Pierpoint, Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books
“Professor Mizener’s best-selling biography of Fitzgerald, ”The Far Side of Paradise,” was published in 1951 by Houghton Mifflin, a decade after a heart attack ended the downward-spiraling career of the canonizer of the Jazz Age of the 1920’s.”–NY Times obituary, Feb. 15, 1988.
Octavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Review slip laid in. Bookplate of Arthur Mizener. Neat pencil annotations by Mizener throughout. Spine toned with small chip at head and light edgewear. Custom leather box. An impressive copy. RARE.

FIRST AMERICAN TRADE EDITION. Octavo. Original pictorial cloth lettered in gilt. Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt, foreword by Gilbert H.Grosvenor. With 8 full page illustrations, 100 illustrations in black and white, and color map bound in at rear. An excellent copy.

LIMITED EDITION, one of 750 copies.
“All I can say is that most modern books weary me, but Burton never does…His writing is like talk, learned but earthy, and once he starts, he is hard to stop…That he was a humorist in our sense of the word we need no biographical facts to attest: The Anatomy of Melancholy is, by a magnificent and somehow very English irony, one of the great comic works of the world.”— Anthony Burgess
Two volumes. Quarto. Original vellum-backed decorative boards. Printed on Dutch paper. An excellent set, clean throughout.

Signed by Samuel Beckett

First French edition, SIGNED BY BECKETT on title page; one of only 112 copies printed on “bouffant select marques” and reserved for the publishers. A collection of six short plays, translated from English by Beckett.
Octavo, original printed wrappers; glassine. Unopened. A FINE COPY.

Pre-publication edition, SIGNED by Soth. Number 26 or 30 numbered copies. With original Inkjet prints bound into cloth covers. Gilt stamped brown cloth with an original photograph mounted on front cover. Fine copy.

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Appian's histories

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Appian’s histories of the various Roman wars from the earliest times to the campaigns of Trajan.
Folio. 18th-century calf recently rebacked. Title leaf laid down and repaired; lower blank corners of last four leaves repaired (not affecting text). Greek type; Estienne’s basilisk device as Royal Greek Printer on title; foliated and grotesque Greek initials with matching headpieces. An attractive copy.

FIRST EDITION of Isaac Newton’s posthumously published theological interpretation of the Biblical prophecies.
“It has generally been assumed that the work was a product of his old age, as the treatise published was. Nevertheless, references to the prophecies filled his early theological notebook. Already in the 1670s, he believed that the essence of the Bible was the prophecy of human history rather than the revelation of truths beyond human reason unto life eternal. Already at that time he believed what he asserted later about Revelation: ‘There [is] no book in all the scriptures so much recommended & guarded by providence as this.’ He put that belief into practice by composing his earliest theological study. It proved to be more than a passing interest. His first full discourse contains many insertions in later hands, showing that he referred to it frequently. He composed numerous revisions of it, one of which was probably the last thing on which he was at work when he died more than fifty years later.” (Richard Westfall, The Life of Sir Isaac Newton).
Quarto, period style boards. Uncut, a superb copy.

FIRST EDTION, THE EXTREMELY RARE HARDCOVER ISSUE; one of an estimated fifty copies bound for presentation.
“[T]his is an almost perfect monograph. It begins and ends with Sommer’s exquisite abstractions, and includes some of the best examples of Sommer’s work in portraiture, collage, landscape, and still life to date. Every two-page spread reveals something more about the images through their juxtaposition. And then there is the text. It is very unusual to have writing at this level, uninfected with either sentimentality or pomposity, from an American photographer, but what’s more unusual is to have an artist who makes images and text and can combine them in a way that deepens and extends the effects of each. This early enactment of Sommer’s ideas about the workings of linguistic and pictorial logic is a gem” (David Levi Strauss. The Book of 101 Books). Roth 101.
Complete with 30 black and white photographs. New York: Aperture, 1962. Small folio (235x205mm), original white cloth with black lettering. Only a few spots of soiling to cloth. A magnificent copy.

Edward Gibbon's masterpiece, FIRST EDITION of Vols II-VI, THIRD EDITION of vol I.

FIRST EDITION of Vols II-VI, THIRD EDITION of vol I. This is the first issue of Volume I to set Gibbon’s footnotes at page-bottom instead of an the end of the volume, a major iomprovement in readability. “To [his] task Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose” (PMM).
Six volumes. Quarto. Rebound in period style quarter calf over marbled boards, the spines gilt with red morocco title and volume labels. An attractive and desirable set. Clean throughout.

“Love is all the dirty little tricks you taught me that you probably got out of some book.”
FIRST EDITION. Original cloth, original dust jacket. A very good copy; jacket bright and well preserved with light rubbing, edgewear and a patch of discoloration on verso only. A very handsome copy.

Allen Ginsberg's Howl, an exceptionally important association copy

FIRST EDITION, one of only 100 copies, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY GINSBERG. Signed and inscribed on title: “for Michael Rumaker / Allen Ginsberg / this historic particular copy of Howl which his eyes read for / Black Mt Review #7 / Signed White Plains N.Y. / March 12, 1976”. Ginsberg also added 20 “ah”‘s along the bottom of the page. With large flower and sun drawing by Ginsberg across title. Rumaker’s ownership signature at top of page. WITH: The original issue of The Black Mountain Review #7 in which Rumaker’s review of “Howl” appears.
“In October 1955 Ginsberg read the first part of his new poem [‘Howl’] in public for the first time to tumultuous applause at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco with the local poets Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, and Philip LaMantia. Journalists were quick to herald the reading as a landmark event in American poetry, the birth of what they labeled the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who ran the City Lights Book Store and the City Lights publishing house in North Beach, sent Ginsberg a telegram echoing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s response to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: ‘I greet you at the beginning of a great career. When do I get the manuscript?’ Later Ginsberg wrote that ‘in publishing ‘Howl,’ I was curious to leave behind after my generation an emotional time bomb that would continue exploding in U.S. consciousness in case our military-industrial-nationalist complex solidified into a repressive police bureaucracy’ (Original Draft Facsimile Howl, p. xii).
“Early in the following year Howl and Other Poems was published with an introduction by William Carlos Williams as number four in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. In May 1956 copies of the small black-and-white stapled paperback were seized by the San Francisco police, who arrested Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao, his shop manager, and charged them with publishing and selling an obscene and indecent book. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the defense of Ginsberg’s poem in a highly publicized obscenity trial in San Francisco, which concluded in October 1957 when Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Howl had redeeming social value” (American National Biography).
Introduction by William Carlos Williams. The Pocket Poets Series: Number Four. Small quarto, original printed wrappers; custom cloth box. Small quarto, original wrappers; custom box housing both Howl and The Black Mountain Review. A little toning to spine (as usual) and a small abrasion to rear cover. Overall an exceptionally fresh, clean beautiful copy.

Signed by D.H. Lawrence, 1/500 copies

“So I should wish these Pansies to be taken as thoughts rather than anything else; casual thoughts that are true while they are true and irrelevant when the mood and circumstances changes. I should like them to be as fleeting as pansies, which wilt so soon, and are fascinating with their varied faces, while they last. And flowers, to my thinking, are not merely pretty-pretty. They have in their fragrance an earthiness of the humus and corruptive earth from which they spring. And pansies, in their streaked faces, have a look of many things besides hearts-ease.” – D.H. Lawrence
“Lawrence himself never took Pansies as seriously as his hostile critics, as his two introductions make clear: he called them ‘rag poems’” (Keith Sagar, The Art of D.H. Lawrence). Nevertheless, this unexpurgated edition, considered by Lawrence to be complete with the full introduction and fourteen additional poems, was published privately due to concerns about pornography. The manuscript had recently been seized by the English police for suspicions of obscenity, which Lawrence took as an insult and perhaps prompted the publication of this and another edition of 500 copies.
PRIVATELY PRINTED FIRST EDITION, number 48 of only 50 copies SIGNED BY LAWRENCE. Octavo, with frontispiece portait of Lawerence printed in brown. Title designed by W.G. West, printed in brown and blue, on Japanese vellum. Original soft grey/blue leather decorated in blue and gold, top edges gilt, others uncut. Bookplate of John Kobler (biographer of Al Capone) on frton pastesown. Spine faded, a little soiling to boards; original slipcase with a little fading and wear at edges; custom half-morocco box with gilt decoration on front board. A very nice copy. RARE.

Signed by W.B. Yeats, 1/1000 copies

SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION of Yeats’s autobiographical work; one of only 1000 copies signed by Yeats.
“Looking back from 1922, [Yeats] titled his autobiographical account of the decade of the 1890s The Trembling of the Veil. He recalled that Mallarme has said that ‘his epoch was troubled by the trembling of the veil of the Temple,’ and that ‘as those words were still true, during the years of my life described in this book,’ he had named it accordingly” (The Cambridge Companion to W.B. Yeats).
Octavo, original half parchment over light green boards; original dust jacket. Dust jacket spine with light wear at the spine (slightly affecting label) and minor toning. A FINE COPY in the scarce original dust jacket.

Number 623 of 1200 copies on vein, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED by Paul Eluard

“Although Man Ray participated in and produced hundreds of fruitful collaborative works in his life, Facile must be ranked among the most successful.” –Roth, 101 Books
Number 623 of 1200 copies on vein, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED by Paul Eluard on the half-title.
Quarto, original wappers; custom half-morocco box. First gathering loose, a hint of wear to wrapper edges. A fine copy.

“The Design which forms the Frontispiece to this book, and which is therefore presumed to be somewhat typical of the intention of Fable, represents Man tried at the Court of the Lion for the ill-treatment of a Horse. It will be seen that Man has the worst of it…”
Quarto. Hand-colored wood-engraved frontispiece, title and 22 plates by Swain after Charles Bennett. Finely bound in near-contemporary maroon calf. Light wear to spine and extremities; internally clean and nearly fine. A handsome and very appealing copy.